During his last summer alive, that of 1926, Houdini took the months of June, July, and August “off” to rest before another season of touring with his Broadway show HOUDINI. Of course, for Houdini, “off” meant working on a book (this one about superstition), planning the founding of a magic school, and writing an article on masonry and occultism. He celebrated his final anniversary with Bess with a quiet day at the movies and one of his many love notes, as rain prevented them from taking their traditional trip to Coney Island.
Houdini’s last tour began in September of 1926. It was HOUDINI but featured a new act. Houdini, locked in a bronze casket that he had made especially for the purpose, was lowered into a glass vault that was then completely filled with sand. Houdini’s escape took about two minutes. The tour was set to last for five months and included appearances all over the country and in Canada. It started off on a bad note. Bess contracted ptomaine poisoning in Providence, Rhode Island, and Houdini stayed up with her all night while she battled fever and nausea. In Albany, Houdini fractured his ankle while performing the Chinese Water Torture Cell. He limped through the rest of the show. He finished his three-day tour in Albany before heading to Montreal on October 18.
The following afternoon, he gave a lecture to McGill University students. A student named Samuel Smilovitz sketched a picture of Houdini lecturing. Houdini was shown the picture at a performance that evening and he invited Smilovitz to come draw him again the following morning. Smilovitz and his friend Jacques Price arrived to Houdini’s dressing room the next day to find him resting on a couch and catching up on his mail. Smilovitz began sketching while Houdini rambled at length about his various plans and recent tricks.
While Smilovitz was drawing, a young, strapping man, reportedly a first-year student at McGill by the name of Whitehead, came by to return some books that Houdini had lent him. Whitehead began talking to Houdini and asked him if it was true that Houdini could withstand any blow to his abdomen. According to Smilovitz, Houdini tried to evade the question by showing the strength of his arms and back. In truth, there is no record of Houdini ever having made a claim of resistance to abdominal blows and Smilovitz was puzzled by it. But when Whitehead asked whether he could try hitting Houdini’s abdomen, Houdini, never able to decline a challenge, agreed to allow it. As Houdini went to rise to face the blows, Whitehead hit him several times with extreme force. Smilovitz and Price were shocked and cried out for him to stop. Houdini himself, winded, told Whitehead, “That will do.” Although startled, Smilovitz finished his sketch, and Houdini remarked that his image looked a little tired in the drawing and that in fact he didn’t feel well.
The following night, Houdini had planned a party to finish off his stint in Montreal, but had to cancel it when he was too ill to dress himself after his performance. He and Bess stuck to their schedule and boarded a train bound for Detroit that night, but Houdini experienced such terrible pain in his stomach that the group wired Detroit asking a doctor to meet them at the station. Upon arriving, the doctor quickly noticed signs of appendicitis, including a fever, but Houdini went to his hotel instead of the hospital, determined to complete his opening-night show. During a break in the show, Houdini collapsed, but was revived and insisted on continuing the show. After the show, Houdini was examined by a doctor at his hotel, who begged him to go to the hospital. After consulting with his own doctor in New York City via phone, Houdini consented and was transported to Grace Hospital.
The following day, Houdini received surgery to remove his appendix. When they opened up his body, the surgeons found his appendix grossly ruptured and enlarged and that the infection peritonitis had set in. Knowing that Houdini was at serious risk of dying from his infection, the doctors tried an experimental medicine that brought down his fever. During the post-surgery period, Houdini remained alert and conscious, thanking all hospital staff members that performed any task for him. Houdini’s brothers Nat and Hardeen and his sister Gladys came to the Detroit hospital. Bess, still recovering from her recent illness and also hospitalized, was carried to the room for brief visits. Mail poured in, and the newspapers wrote of Houdini’s condition.
On Friday, October 29 Houdini received a second surgery. He did not recover from this one. Hardeen, by his bedside, later said that Houdini’s last words were, “I can’t fight anymore.” Houdini died on Halloween, Sunday, October 31, 1926. The official cause of death was ruled peritonitis. While rumors swirled about foul play and medical malpractice, as well as the cause of death being the blows Houdini had received from Whitehead, medical evidence points to the probability that Houdini’s appendix had actually ruptured some time before Whitehead punched him and that the infection had been spreading in his body for a significant period of time.